3 ms·
Also, although transparency always sounds wonderful, negotiating a treaty in the open is potentially very difficult: the media are liable to trumpet a 'humiliat
by gmac 11y ago
Also, although transparency always sounds wonderful, negotiating a treaty in the open is potentially very difficult: the media are liable to trumpet a 'humiliating U-turn!' any time someone ends up negotiating to a new position, even though that's kind of the point.
- retrogradeorbit 11y agoSo this is kept secret to avoid hurting some bureaucrat's feelings?
- TeMPOraL 11y agoI think GP's point is that media will take the most idiotic view of the problem possible; it's not about hurting bureaucrat's feelings, it's about people hurting themselves by mindless, knee-jerk reactions.
- gmac 11y agoNo — 'humiliating U-turn' on the front pages is very much a political problem, and could lead to early entrenchment of positions.
- switch007 11y agoIt's better that the public get the wrong end of the stick rather than merely knowing a stick exists. The media would get very bored of treaty details very quickly. Not that most of the media is completely independent of and unrelated to the parties doing the negotiating, anyway.